Greetings readers,
So here we are again, almost the end of two weeks now. And again, I am combining three days into one post. What can I say, life can get the best of all of us.
On Wednesday, August 25, the day after my date with R, I woke up feeling better than I have in a long time.
I probably should have known that that feeling would not last.
That morning, I puttered around my apartment, did some laundry, that sort of thing. By the time lunch rolled around, I was beginning to feel a little off. Not quite sick, but off. I am really not sure how to describe it.
Regardless of how I was feeling, I went out to accomplish my goal that afternoon.
That day, I went and volunteered my time at the church again. Again, I handed out food and then sat down a chatted with some of the homeless people. I met a young woman, that I will call A.
I had met her last week, and briefly talked with her, but this week, I talked with her a bit longer. She told me a bit of her story that day. It turns out, A had been abused as a little girl, and she ran away from her home when she was 14.
There she spent her days trying to hide from other runaways and homeless, and her nights trying to scavenge for food. She was eventually found and picked up by the police when they caught her scrounging through trashbins behind a restaurant.
The police took her to a children's home here in town, where she finally had a place to stay. Unfortunately, she could not stay there for long. Her parents came back and took her away. It was not long before the abuse started again, and she ran away again.
That was years ago, and she has been living on the streets, homeless, ever since.
Hearing her story made me sad for her. Not pity, because in all honesty, she is not unhappy with her lifestyle. But I felt sad for her all the same.
But rather than sadness, I feel that there is something that I can learn from A. She has had a rough life. Living on the streets, especially at such a young age, is hard. But throughout it all, she has managed to maintain her sense of self, her happiness.
No matter what happens to her, she has always maintained a positive outlook. I feel that that is something that I can learn from. Keeping a positive outlook no matter what.
On Thursday, I woke up and immediately felt sick. Not just off like the day before, but well and truly sick. About the only thing I managed to force down my throat that day was some orange juice and soup. I spent almost the whole day alternating between laying in bed, and hovering over the toilet, threatening to vomit.
I did manage to accomplish my goal, however, in a rather abstract way. R came by, and I gave her the necessary money and instructions on what to do. She drove over to a local coffee shop and a popular hangout spot for college students.
Once she got there, she went up to the counter, handed the barista the money, and told the barista that the money was to be continually used to pay for people's purchases until there was no more money left. The amount of money that I gave her, should pay for about 20 people's purchases.
I told R to stick around and just observe what people did. She reported back to me, saying that people were genuinely surprised at what was going on. There were people who were suspicious, but most people just sort of accepted it, and walked away from the counter with a smile on their face.
I was glad to hear that from her when she came back to my apartment, and bearing some food as well that she apparently bought for me to try and eat. Unfortunately, my stomach was not quite up to eating it, but it can be saved for the next day.
Today, I woke up feeling better. Not back to normal, but better. I was able to eat a small breakfast and not feel like I was going to vomit.
So, this afternoon, I left my apartment and headed back to college, campus that is. Since today is still pretty close to back to school, there are groups all over campus holding little events. I used to be a part of a group on campus, and I knew that today they were holding an event where they were going to give away ice cream sundaes to people.
I spent a good 2 hours helping dish out ice cream to college students. Most of them simply took it and left, not even bothering to take out their headphones from their iPods or whatever other device they were on.
The reason I was there, was for those students who took the time to stop and talk with us. Not necessarily to hear about the group, but simply to be nice and socialize.
It was these people who made me standing in the hot sun for hours, bearable, even enjoyable. I got to talk to some great people whom I had never talked to before. And I got to see people smiling and enjoying themselves, and some free ice cream.
As I sit here writing this, there are a few things that I have noticed about the last 2 weeks. But those will wait until tomorrow, and the post for day 14, which will be a post half-dedicated to my goal, and half-dedicated to another week wrap-up.
Until next time,
B
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